This is a site where I post reviews of CDs, DVDs, LPs, and concerts. I have been writing music reviews on and off since 1984. I ran a heavy metal fanzine from 1984-1988 called Metal Madness and have been a staff writer for Aural Innovations for many years. I have also contributed to Chrohinga Well (RIP), Bad Acid (RIP), Lowcut (RIP), Roadburn and a number of other zines as well. I recently moved to Portugal so please request the new address and do not send any music to Denmark anymore. Tak..

Sunday, August 27, 2017

The all instrumental rock trio from
Copenhagen are back with their 5th studio album and this time it is
a double LP or CD. I have been friends
with the band since nearly the beginning and reviewed nearly all their
records.I had spoken with the band a
lot about this record. It took a long time to come out compared to when it was
recorded but it is here now! The band brought in John McIntire (Tortoise) to
mix the record over in the USA.The
album features 7 long tracks (the shortest is 9mins) spread over about 90mins).
As is quite common with the band, there are no song titles, just V.1, V.II,
V.III, etc. Track V.I starts off with a mid-pace, a nice clean drum and bass
sound, while Nicklas layers in with some very floating guitar. Later, he overdubs a lead guitar, every
beautiful and melodic solo as the track builds in intensity. Some really cool
delay guitars and some that sounds like keyboards at times. Cool track. V.II
(one they used to call Acid Rock). IT starts off quite dreamy but Christoffer
slowly drives the rhythm a bit faster and about 3 mins the track really takes
off. At 6.2 mins Nicklas switches from the dreamy guitar to a more hard rock
riff and just rips it up on the guitar.Amazing bass playing in this section as well by Christian. The track
comes down after about a min or so to sort of where it started. Some keyboards
also appear (not sure how plays them?) to compliment the guitar lines. It ends
in a very dreamy and beautiful way. The
live versions of this song are much more intense these days. V.III features
some really cool interplay between the bass and guitar lines. I love the way
they compliment each other as the track slowly builds again. A very lush sound
with keyboard like guitars at times. Post rock is not a word I would have
mentioned with Papir in the past but this track is a prime example of the
genre, done Papir style. V.IV ends the first CD with a 15min track. It starts
much like the others but the underlying keyboard sequence plays a bigger role
at the start of this track. Nicklas plays some really cool guitar solos on this
track. Sometimes a bit jazzy, some David Gilmour like stuff and then just some
great lead runs. V.V starts off quite
slow and a spacey with some nice delay guitar. It maintains this relaxed vibe
throughout the track. V.VI has a bit of a drone at the start and slowly builds
with some really cool guitar and again some keyboards (very airy).It later builds up to a more rocking state
with some really cool wah bass playing. V.VII is 25mins long and ends the
record. IT starts slowly and very relaxed. I love the section between 10-12 mins with the
intense delays, swirling organ like keyboard. The track nearly dies completely
but then steps forward again to continue in much the way it started.

This
is a pretty amazing record and a bit more laid back and spacey with super cool
guitar, bass and drums.They just have
magic these guys. Each track is it’s own individual journey. Hope you enjoyed
the trip..

Kungens Män is based in Stockholm and
have been pretty active with releases the past few years and have played some
shows outside of Stockholm as well.This
is another self released double CD. It is also available as a limited double
LP. The band has also released material on other labels but this is the 6th
on their own label.IT features one CD
(Dag= Day) and the song titles relate to the day and the 2nd CD
(Natt= Night), relate to Night time. Mogenrodnad (13mins) starts things off with a
slow growing start with saxophone, effected vocals and some guitar. Dag is a
more uptempo track with a repeated guitar line and steady groove and after
about 4mins a very nice guitar solo. Samtidigt is more floating and spacey. The
electronics-keyboards are all mixed pretty low on this release but you can hear,
feel, sense it more on this track at the beginning. It has a sort of mysterious
feeling to the guitar lines, like something strange might happen. Aftonstärnan
ends this first CD (or LP).Another more
repetitive piece to start but you really get sucked into this one as it breaks
the 13min mark. There
are 7 guys listed as playing on the record but on this first CD it is mostly
just two guitars, bass, drums (sax on the 1st track) and some
electronics here and there but mixed very low.

Natt
starts off with Natt and the return of the saxophone. This track is a bit
boring not enough is going on really. Track two has the heaviest guitar on the
record (the only really heavy intense guitar), while the 2nd guitar
plays some very similar melodic stuff as he has on many of the tracks. This is
a dark one and one of my faves on the 2LP set.Ett Tappat Perspiktir has a darker feel to it, a bit menacing at times.
A few more wild and spacey sounds appear in this one. This track is the most psychedelic one on the
album and you can really get lost in space. Cool stuff. Mara is a short 3min
track and very spacey with an distorted drum, delay guitars, effected vocals.
Vargtimimen again bringsmore dark theme
to the evening. Cirklen är Slut (the circle is closed) ends your 90mins of fun
with Kungens Man!

If
you are lucky, there is an amazing 2LP version with one white vinyl LP and one
black made in only 150 copies. It also has a cool silk screen, some stickers
and other stuff as well. Very nice package.

The UK psych band, the Chemistry St
are back with a brilliant new 7”. I was
quite impressed with their full length album last year. The title track of this
7” is a quite funny and cool Kinks inspired track.Rubicon is something totally different with
an almost punky attitude and energy to it but still sort of the bands signature
sound. I would have liked this one to be a bit more stretched out as the guitar
solo is cool. The highlight of this release though is the great cover version
of the old Moody Blues song, Legend of a Mind (about Timothy Leary!). Wow..
what a super cool version of this song from 1968.

Ash Magna is a spaced out side
project of Vince Cory (Alan Davey, Red Elektra, Sonic Shamen and
others..).Vince sent me one or two
other CD-Rs of this project and it is all pretty cool. This one is more
advanced in the layers of sound and there are more people involed. Chris
Meinhardt (Oglala overtone, bells) has been on another of the releases. Daneel
Olivaw adds some synths, sound FX and Dan Schott provides the loops and beats.
The first track, Neon Krishna f.m., is an uptempo electronic driven track with
some nice melodies and it is very spacey. Veda is a drifting space track with
no rhythms, just spacey drones, very airy, flight, fresh.. Desert Dancer features some electronic tabla
like drums as it slowly takes form with some nice guitar and bells, etc… some
cool layers in this track as it gets going. Very spaced out with some nice
female vocals sung in a sort of mid-eastern vibe. Djong starts very spacey with
some delay guitars and floating space synths and drones. Vince plays a really
cool guitar solo on this track. This is
a very long track. Voyager starts with some guitar, drones and spacey sounds
but a very nice melodic thread but very short. Mandala ends the CD and starts
with some acoustic guitar. I really enjoyed this one a lot…

I am familiar with the German band
Daily Thompson (stoner rock) but I have never heard of the Danish band, Monkey
Okay (even though I lived in Denmark for 20 years!). Side A features River Haze by Daily Thompson. I like the guitar riff
that the song starts off with before the heavy bass and drums kick in.A lot of low end on this 7”, wow. I really
dug this straight forward hypnotic stoner track.Monkey
Okay’s track is called Cancerman. This is a catchy high energy rock track.
I dig the singers voice and some great cool dual guitars on this track.This is a great 7”.Both bands kick ass.Released on Sept 22nd in 3 colours
in 210 copies total.

About Me

I am a research scientist doing Diabetes research and I do music journalism on the side and have been writing about music for 28 years now. I also lead an all improvised psychedelic space rock band called the Øresund Space Collective. I also am an avid collector of music.